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Drones: the eye in the sky (and oceans)

( Updated: 12/16/2014 )

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Sgt. Scott Weaver, of the Queen's Royal Lancers, is seen launching a Black Hornet Nano unmanned air vehicle from a compound in Afghanistan in 2013. British troops in Afghanistan are the first to use the small surveillance helicopters, which measure 10 by 2.5 centimeters and are equipped with a tiny camera that gives troops video and still images. Sgt Rupert Frere/RLC/MoD/Reuters

The US Navy's GhostSwimmer, a reconnaissance robot with an exterior shell built to look a lot like a shark. Project Silent NEMO is an experiment that explores the possible uses for a biomimetic device developed by the Office of Naval Research. Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Edward Guttierrez III/US Navy

Graduate students Tuna Tuksoz (l.) and Mark Cutler in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics work on a simulator of a winged aircraft - a quadrotor - that has military applications, in Cambridge, Mass., on Sept. 2011. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

A drone by Airbus is on display at the ILA Berlin Air Show in Selchow, near Schoenefeld south of Berlin, Germany, on May 2014. Tobias Schwarz/Reuters

Farmer Robert Blair stands in front of his tractor holding an unmanned aircraft that he built in Kendrick, Idaho, on May 2013. Blair uses the home-made drone equipped with up to four cameras to 'scout' his 1,500 acres of wheat, peas, barley, alfalfa, and cow pasture. Courtesy of Rhonda Blair/AP

Drones enthusiasts gather at the 4th Intergalactic Meeting of Phantom's Pilots (MIPP) in an open secure area in the Bois de Boulogne, western Paris, on March 2014. Drone operators in France are required to complete a training course to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle and also receive written approval for flights in urban areas. Charles Platiau/Reuters

General Atomics employees move the MQ-9 Predator B onto the tarmac for maintenance at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. US Customs and Border Protection grounded its fleet of drones after a crew was forced to crash the pilotless craft, a maritime variant of the Predator B, off the coast of Southern California because of a mechanical problem on Jan. 2014. Jeff Topping/Reuters

An unmanned Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moonlit night on Jan. 2010. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/File

Egyptian Navy unmanned underwater drone seen during the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX) in Bahrain, on Nov. 2014. Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters

Tyson Shultz of the Oregon Department of Forestry shows a radio-controlled helicopter at the department's compound on the outskirts of Grants Pass, Ore., on June 2014. The department is equipping the aircraft with video and infrared cameras and a GPS locator. It plans to use the helicopter as another set of eyes on wildfires. Jeff Barnard/AP

A man walks past a graffiti denouncing strikes by US drones in Sanaa, Yemen, on Nov. 2014. Yemeni authorities have paid out tens of thousands of dollars to victims of drone strikes using U.S.-supplied funds, a source close to Yemen's presidency said. Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

Crew members carry a drone with the wing span of almost 13 feet following a test flight at a ranch near Sarita, Texas, on Jan. 2014. A Texas A&M Corpus Christi research team is conducting tests to help determine how unmanned aircraft system can be integrated into existing airspace. Eric Gay/AP

An AeroVironment Puma drone is given a pre-flight checkout in preparation for flights by BP at its Prudhoe Bay, Alaska operations. The Federal Aviation Administration granted the first permission for commercial drone flights over land, the latest effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft. BP Alaska/AP

A Predator drone armed with a missile stands on the tarmac of Kandahar military airport in Afghanistan in 2010. Massoud Hossaini/Reuters/File

Captain Bob, a US Air Force officer who asked not to be identified fully, operates a Predator unmanned aircraft system (UAS) over Afghanistan from a control station at an Air Force base in Nevada in 2009. Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor

An airman assigned to the 432nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron works on the front end of a Predator UAS at Creech Air Force Base in 2009. Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor

Demonstrators protest against the use of drones prior to the second US presidential campaign debate in Hempstead, New York, on Oct. 2012. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

An Aeryon Scout unmanned aerial vehicle hovers at the Nome causeway in Alaska in 2009. The drone glides on 20-minute missions ranging from 10 to 320 feet above the ice, and its images can be instantly viewed on a tablet-type computer screen. University of Alaska Geophysical Institute/AP

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Outwardly, US-Pakistan relations still look tense. But with Tuesday's US drone strike into Pakistan, ending a hiatus of nearly two months, some experts see some resumed cooperation – and say Pakistan's military may have good reason.